DEA arrests 33 people in San Juan, breaks up drug route from Puerto Rico to U.S.A.

Federal U.S. agents launched a surprise anti-narcotics operation on June 6, 2012 in the San Juan Luis Muñoz Marín airport in Puerto Rico. 33 suspects were taken into custody, including airport workers, airline employees, and other suspicious individuals who were attempting to smuggle millions of dollars of cocaine onto commercial flights for at least a decade. Two other suspects were arrested in the Miami international airport, and one other was taken into custody in the Dallas-Fort Worth airport. 18 arrestees worked for American Airlines. The suspects are thought to belong to a Puerto-Rican drug trafficking organization, Diario de 3 reports. One group is reported to be led by a woman. The organizations moved large amounts of cocaine from Puerto Rico to various cities in the United States, such as Miami, New York, and Boston. One of the groups operated from 1999 to 2009, and the other was active from 2010 to 2012. Read Article